Standard opening discussion

We are going to explore your experiences of using the Social Stories intervention. You have been working with a child/young person implementing, developing, writing or sharing a social story over a period of time.

We are interested in your experiences of this. There are no right or wrong answers, only your experience of how it went, what worked well, what did not etc. The aim of this part of the study is to try and work out what we need to develop further and also what does not need to change so that this intervention can be rolled out to other schools.

We value your opinions so speak honestly and openly. You are free at any time to withdraw from the study. Any information you give us is stored confidentially and will not be ascribed back to yourself.

Goal Setting

You were asked to set a number of goals.

• What processes were involved in setting goals?
  • How were issues/goals identified?
  • Who was at meeting (i.e who was involved)?
    • Did you meet together or separately?
    • Where did you meet?
• How straightforward was it setting goals?
  • How long did it take to decide on/write goals?
  • How useful did you find setting goals?
  • Were you happy with the outcomes of goal setting?
• Did you find the manual useful in terms of goals?
  • If yes, why/if no why not?
• Did the training link to setting the goals?

What was story about

• Can you tell me about the social story(ies) that you worked on?
  • What were the story/ies?
  • Do you have copies?
• What was reason behind writing the social story?
  • What was it trying to achieve, what behaviours was it trying to explore?
  • Did you manage to marry up the goals set within the story?
• How long did it take you to write a social story?
• Who was involved in writing?
• How closely did you follow the manual when writing this social story?
• How often did you refer back to the manual whilst developing the social story?

What about the parents: were they supportive? What was their input? Do you know if the stories were read at home?

Using the story

Was it read completely, how many times?

• Over what sort of period?
  • Why was it read so frequently/infrequently?

When is a good time to withdraw it/reduce it, when is it phased out?

• How is this planned for?

Using the manual

Did you write any comments on the manual for the authors?

If yes, collect in

Views on presentation of manual

Do you have any comments about presentation?

Was it the right format, shape?

• Do you have any comments about the layout?
  • Was the type setting good, images?

Develop/change/keep the same?

Views on structure of manual

What are your views on the structure of the manual?

• Are the sections laid out logically?
• Were they in the right order for you?
• Was it easy to navigate?
• Anything you would change/develop/keep the same?

Views on content of manual

What were your views on the content of the manual?

How did you find the language in the manual?

• I.e. was it pitched at the right level for you?

Was the content easy to understand?

• Was there anything in the manual that you had to ask advice about or seek clarification?
• Were there are bits of the manual that you skipped over? Why?

If you could speak to the authors, what would you like to be changed, developed or to stay the same?

Facilitators, barriers and experiences

In your experience, how pragmatic is the use of social stories in classroom settings?

• Can you see any barriers? Also, what facilitates a social stories use?
  • Is it keen, skilled teachers, settings, supportive infrastructure?

Teacher experiences

How do you think it went?

• Generally?
• Overall?

Having read the manual how confident do you feel about preparing and delivering your own social story in future?

How useful was the manual in helping you to prepare and deliver your social story?

• Is the training alongside the manual enough to support people in using social stories?

Child experiences

Initially did the child want to take part in the social stories?

• Was this a new experience for them?

How did the child receive the social story?

• Did reading social stories at school cause any distress?
• Did they like it/adapt it/reject it?

Do you think the social story affected the child’s social skills and/or behaviour in any way?

Do you think the social story had any other impacts?

Prompt: home-school relations, understanding of child

Other than social stories, did you use any other interventions or types of support at school to help achieve the goals that were set?

Improving the intervention

Do you think there is anything that can be done within the classroom or outwith it that would give the social stories better impact/make them work better?

Is there anything else that could be done to make this intervention and the manual a success?

Exploring the quantitative domains

Did you complete the paperwork sent by Hannah?

• Was there anything that you did not understand or was difficult to complete?

Which of these 9 titles would you hope would be improved using social stories? Is there anything else missing e.g. any others? (use a blank post it note)

1. Mobility
2. Self-care
3. Usual activities
4. Pain/discomfort
5. Anxiety/depression
6. Sensation
7. Emotion
8. Cognition
9. Fertility

Rank in order of importance (check which ones are most relevant/not relevant)

Which are the top 3 that would give the best measure of how child’s life would be improved?

Collect in social story, collect in diary, collect in paperwork.